Hidden Treasures
by ASLwriter88
Summary: An argument leads to Kazuto having to make some plans to spend more time with Asuna. But hes having a hard to time figuring out what exactly they should do together.


Hidden Treasures

It was a crisp, autumn day when Kazuto decided to take his motorcycle out for a spin. The black Kawasaki Ninja 250R zoomed through traffic as he made his way to the bar to meet with Klein and Agil. The guys had not seen him in a few weeks and he had to admit that he missed his two best friends. He was looking forward to a guys night out and he needed it after the day he had. Asuna had gotten upset with him complaining that, besides playing video games, they never went anywhere together.  
"I work all day, Asuna, I want to relax when I come home," he argued, exasperatedly. "Is that so much to ask?"  
"Is it so much to ask to go out once in awhile?" yelled Asuna. " I can't even remember the last time we went out on a date."  
Kazuto sighed in frustration. "Fine! You want to go out? We'll go out this weekend."  
Asuna frowned at him. "You're just agreeing to shut me up."  
On and on the argument went until Kazuto was able to calm down and gently agree with her. It had been quite some time since they had gone anywhere together. They had gone out to dinner a few months ago but other than that they had not really had time to do anything with just the two of them.  
Kazuto parked his bike right outside the bar on the street. As he took off his helmet, he took in the cool fall air as he straightened out his clothes. He wore a pair of dark blue jeans with a black long sleeved shirt underneath his black denim jacket. He had not bothered fixing his hair, however. While helmets often gave guys a bad case of hat hair, this was not the case with Kazuto as Asuna had pointed out one day.  
After the couple had taken a ride on his motorcycle he had taken his helmet off only to receive a kind of mumbled groan from Asuna. When he asked her what was wrong she told him that his hair had gotten even messier from the helmet. As he reached up to fix it, her hand caught his.  
"No, don't!" she practically screamed. Asuna blushed and released his hand again. "It…it makes you look sexy." She finished in a murmur so that only Kazuto was able to hear.  
Even now, the memory made Kazuto blush as he walked into the bar. The place was pretty deserted except for a couple sitting in the corner, holding hands and talking in hushed voices and, of course, Klein sitting at the counter already , talking to Agil who was behind the counter preparing him a drink.  
"Hey, man!" Agil waved him over and Kazuto set his helmet aside as he took a seat at a stool next to Klein.  
"What's up?" said Klein, nursing his favorite drink, bourbon on the rocks.  
"I'm okay." Kazuto answered. He looked at Agil. "Can I get a scotch and soda?"  
As Agil prepared the drink he seemed to give Kazuto a knowing stare. "Trouble in paradise?" he asked with a smirk.  
Kazuto sighed. He launched into an explanation of his argument with Asuna.  
There was moment of thoughtful silence before Klein spoke up.  
"Sounds like you need some advice on a good date."  
Kazuto shrugged. "If you guys have anything, I'm all ears."  
Again, silence fell as they thought. Agil twirled a glass in his hand as he cleaned it with a cloth. Klein tapped his fingers on the counter.  
"Well," Klein started. "Silica and I tried something the other day. It's called geocaching."  
Agil and Kazuto looked at Klein with puzzled expressions. "What's that?" they asked together.

"Well, you download this app on your phone and it comes up with coordinates to little containers placed all around your city." Klein began to describe. He pulled out his cell phone and showed them the app. "You follow the coordinates till you find the containers."  
"What do the containers look like?" asked Kazuto.  
"Anything. It could be a film canister, pop bottle, or anything you can put stuff into."  
"Okay," said Agil. "What happens when you find the container?"  
"There's usually a little log book that you sign your name on and you take out a little novelty item and replaced it with another." Klein smiled. "Chicks love it!"  
"What types of novelty items?" Kazuto started to think that this might be the perfect thing to get Asuna back in his good graces.  
"They can be anything." He started ticking off items on his fingers. "We saw tiny erasers, cheap toys, plastic rings. That kind of stuff."  
Kazuto smiled. This was perfect. "Have you guys ever made your own to hide?"  
Klein nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't hard to put the coordinates in either."  
An idea was forming in Kazuto's head. "Show me how."  
For the next quarter of an hour, Klein guided the guys on how to set up the app for geocaching.

A few days later, Kazuto was guiding his motorcycle along traffic with Asuna sitting behind him, clutching him round his middle. He would not admit it but he loved when she did this, especially when she would rest her head against his back. It told him she trusted him and today he felt more relaxed than he had in a long time. Klein had been right about geocaching. Both he and Asuna had been enjoying themselves immensely wandering around the city looking for the hidden capsules that people had place in random secret hiding spots.  
The geocaches had not only shown them a new activity they could do together but it also had other special benefits. For instance, while they were fishing out a particular stubborn capsule from a small owl hole, they had looked up to find a restaurant they had never seen before. Intrigued, they decided to have lunch there before venturing out for more caches. It turned out they made a great choice because this restaurant made the best shrimp alfredo pasta that either had ever eaten.  
The two of them were having such an amazing time that it was hard to believe they were fighting mere days before.  
Finally, after several more hours of searching in which they had taken turns deciding on which caches to find on Kazuto's phone, they had arrived at their final destination.  
Getting off the motorcycle, they set their helmets on the bike and made their way, hand-in-hand, toward the most beautiful garden Asuna had ever seen.  
"Where are we?" she asked, her jaw dropped.  
"This is the Kenrokuen Garden." Kazuto said, seeing her expression out of the corner of his eye. He smiled to himself. "Shall we start our search?"  
Asuna mentally shook herself out of her reverie and said, "Yes."  
As they began their search , with occasional glances at their cell phones, they took in the view. They were standing on one side of a magnificent garden that had so many different types of flowers that Kazuto could not even keep track of them. He had definitely spotted ones he could identify such as tulips, hydrangeas, and roses but there were so many he had not known the names of. Above them the cherry blossom trees had just begun to show signs of wilting but there were still many blossoms on the branches coloring the blue sky with a gentle pink hue.  
In front of them was a small winding river that separated them from the other side of the garden which was just as colorful and beautiful as the side they were on now. A small bridge brought the two lands together and Kazuto noticed that there were a few couples crossing the bridge, not taking notice to anything but themselves. _Perfect,_ though Kazuto. Everything was going according to his plan.  
He pulled Asuna towards the bridge and when she looked at him, puzzled, he told her. "I think the cache is over by this bridge."  
She followed him with a grin on her face. Kazuto could tell she was having such a good day and that made him smile as well.  
When they reached the bridge they looked around the flowers to see if they could find some trace of a container. After several minutes of searching, Asuna straightened up and said, "I don't see anything, do you?" She turned around to face him but when she did she found him crouched under the bridge. "What are you doing?" After another minute Kazuto stood up and made his way back up to the garden to stand in front of Asuna. Her eyes sparkled as she saw that he had a mall film canister in his hand. "Oh! You found it! What's inside?" They walked, unconsciously, a few more feet until they were on the middle of the bridge while Kazuto fiddled around with the lid to the container.  
Kazuto looked down into the container and dumped the contents into his hand and clenched his fist so that Asuna could not see.  
Asuna was bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. "What is it?"  
Kazuto slowly unclenched his fist. In his open palm was a ring. It had a white gold band and in the middle was a diamond in the shape of a teardrop. On one side of the diamond was a sapphire and the other side had a pink oval.  
Asuna gaped at the ring with confusion in her eyes. "Kazuto, what-"  
But before she could say anything else, Kazuto had gotten down on one knee, holding the ring in front of him. "Asuna, it's been three years since I met you in SAO." He began, his breath catching slightly with emotion, "Living together on floor twenty-two is one of the best memories from the game. When I got you out of ALO, I finally was able to touch you in the real world and ever since then I promised myself that nothing would ever come between us again." Kazuto took a deep breath. "Asuna, will you let me protect you for the rest of our lives as you husband? Will you marry me?"  
Asuna's hands flew to her mouth in shock, tears flowing freely throughout his speech. "Yes!" She kneeled down in front of him and he took her left hand in his to slip the ring onto her finger. Kazuto leaned forward and kissed Asuna as he put his arms around her. A few moments later, Asuna leaned back and looked at the ring. Tears filled her eyes again as she said "It looked like Yui's heart." She had been staring at the diamond.  
"I know," said Kazuto. "I wanted her to always be with you no matter which world we were in."  
Asuna kissed him again and he knew that they would have a wonderful life together. He knew they would have their good days and their bad days but he was ready for anything the world could throw at them because in any world, virtual or real, he would be there to protect Asuna till the very end.


End file.
